Paris, January 17th, 2024
CAMILLE COTTIN IN CONVERSATION WITH GUIA ORTOLANI
During our conversation, as from the way she presents herself, her unconventional spirit is evident. Camille tells me that she gained freedom mainly through her work, that her mom gave her a certain open-mindedness, and that Tilda Swinton is her muse. On the occasion of this Cover Story Camille wears Dior SS24 collection. Everything about her is perfectly in tune with the maison, no wonder in fact that a special bond was formed…
GO Hi Camille, how did you start your day?
CC This morning I woke up at 5.45 am and left at 6 am to spend the morning in a broken taxi on a highway outside Paris, under a heavy false rain. It was my first day on Pierre Schoeller’s film Rembrandt.
GO Where did you spend your last Holidays? Japan has been a very popular destination lately, it inspires me so much… Is there a specific place you haven’t been yet that you would like to visit?
CC I can not agree more, Japan is an amazing country offering such a rich culture to discover. The traditional food, the arts, the architecture, the way of life, everything is so refined. I have only spent a few days in Tokyo but it remained as a very vivid memory, and I would love to return and discover Kyoto, see the blossoming cherry trees. Another place I would like to visit is New Zealand, I would love to rent a van with my family and drive all around the island. The Piano is one of my favorite film, and I have a very strong fantasy about this magnificent nature.
GO After first success with Connasse, princesse des cœurs and your magnetic performance as the main character Andréa in Call My Agent!, you have become one of the most in-demand French actresses on the international scene. In House of Gucci you captivated the whole world, and haven’t stopped for a moment since. What keeps you going in this? What motivates you?
CC There are still so many talented people I am dreaming to meet and collaborate with. So many marvelous actresses that I dream of working with. So, honestly, if I can keep telling stories through the eyes of a director I admire and keep creating in partnership with actors I also esteem, both as human beings and artists, I would be fulfilled. And fiction has the power to influence our perspectives.
GO You are now at the movies with Toni, en famille, playing a mother of five. A sweet and emotional mother. You are a mom yourself! I’ve read you had a quite authoritarian educational model. How do you relate to your children? What do you seek to transmit them?
CC I tried to be authoritarian because this is how I was brought up by my mum, but since Toni, I think I changed a little. Now my eldest is 13 and my youngest 8. They are both in a pivotal moment, one no longer a little girl and the other one almost a teenager. They are changing a lot and we as parent need to adapt. It is everything but boring to raise children…
GO Very attentive to equal opportunities, you fight to promote gender parity in film and television. How did you grow in the free and determined woman that you are today?
CC My mother has always been free minded, with a passion for traveling and reading. But she also suffered from not working and following her husband as an expat. I think these things influenced me in a certain way, relating to work as a possibility to be free.
GO What would you say to a young girl who wants to pursue an acting career?
CC Go for it! It’s as marvelous as it’s tough, but definitely worth living!
GO Do you find yourself surrounded more by men or by women? In general, what kind of people do you feel in- spired by?
CC I think I am more surrounded by women because I have this old fashioned habit of having girls BFF. I am kidding, but to be honest I worship my friendships as much as my love life and my family life. There is often an immediate intimacy among women who just met that I am very sensitive to. I am thrilled to be going through these times when women have more space as artists, and raise their voices.
Read the full interview on Muse February Issue 63.
